LeBron James went viral for mistakenly thinking crowd was cheering for him

LeBron James is used to getting the biggest cheer from fans in any arena he enters. But for at least one moment Tuesday during Team USA’s knockout stage contest against Brazil, the crowd saved their loudest applause for someone else.

James took a huge inadvertent elbow to the face midway through the third quarter of the Olympic men’s basketball quarterfinal matchup held at Bercy Arena in Paris, France.

The four-time NBA MVP positioned himself for a rebound underneath the rim when Brazilian forward Georginho de Paula flew in from behind for a tip-in. James got cut above the eye after getting clocked by de Paula’s elbow.

After getting the wound cleaned up in the locker room, James was able to return to the bench late in the fourth quarter. There was raucous applause from the crowd as James took his seat. King James acknowledged the crowd and even did a “crowning himself” gesture to play off what he thought were cheers for him.

Crowd started cheering and LeBron thought it was for him, but it was for gold medal french swimmer Léon Marchand in the crowd pic.twitter.com/Z0e5lHMrQ0

— ᗩᑎT ᗯᖇIGᕼT (@itsAntWright) August 6, 2024

However, the cheers weren’t actually for James. They were for French Olympic swimmer Leon Marchand, who had stood up from his seat to greet his supporters.

In all fairness to James, the arena staff may have thought the crowd reaction was for the American too. LeBron appeared to be shown on the jumbotron, which led to the confusion.

Embarrassing moment aside, James and the US squad cruised to a 122-87 win over Brazil to move on to the semifinals.